Politics

Diplomatic Crisis Looms Over NY Beating Case

Serbian Authorities Seek More Information Before Arresting Suspect

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ― Serbian authorities are awaiting more information from the United States before issuing an arrest warrant for a Serbian basketball player charged in New York with beating a college classmate to near death, the public prosecutor said Thursday.

The case of Miladin Kovacevic is threatening to ignite a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

The basketball player fled the United States after being arrested on charges connected to a May 4 bar fight in Binghamton, in upstate New York, that left Bryan Steinhauer in critical condition. Steinhauer, 22, has not regained consciousness since the fight.

Kovacevic -- who had been recruited to play basketball for Binghamton University -- left the United States on July 9, three days after being released from U.S. custody when his family posted $100,000 bail.

As a condition of his release, Kovacevic surrendered his passport, but the Serbian consulate in New York furnished him with emergency travel documents that helped him flee the country.

Public Prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic said "Serbia will undertake everything in its power to sanction such crimes, and have the alleged perpetrator face justice," Radovanovic said.

"But we need an official request and information in order to act," Radovanovic said.

The U.S. on Tuesday asked the Serbian Foreign Ministry to send Kovacevic back to the U.S. for trial, but Serbia wants to see the whole case against the basketball player so it can consider whether he should instead be tried in a Serb court.

In the meantime, the Serbian government on Wednesday removed its general consul in New York, Slobodan Nenadovic, for issuing Kovacevic the new travel documents.

Two other men charged along with Kovacevic -- Sanel Softic and Edin Dzubur -- are in custody in New York pending a Monday hearing on whether their bail should be increased. The two had been freed on $10,000 bail before police upgraded the beating charge to assault.

U.S. police said the 6-foot-9-inch basketball player was at the bar with friends when Steinhauer danced with one of their girlfriends, sparking an angry exchange of words. A fight then followed, and Kovacevic is accused of repeatedly kicking Steinhauer in the head, police said.

New York congressmen have asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to pressure Serbia to help locate the 20-year-old basketball player and return him to the United States.

U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade Cemeron Muner also asked Serbian authorities to hand back Kovacevic, but the two countries' treaties effectively bar them from extraditing their own citizens.

Legal experts said loopholes could be found that would allow for the basketball player's return, given that he fled the U.S. illegally to avoid prosecution.

Kovacevic's family, in an interview with The New York Post from the Serbian town of Kula, said they had helped their son flee the United States because the "media circus" in New York had unfairly targeted him.

His father, Petar Kovacevic, was quoted as saying his son was "a victim of small-town values ganging up against a foreigner. He was targeted because he was a Serb and a very large man."

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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